Hey guys Im a proud owner of Delonghi Magnifica S automatic espresso machine for 6 months now. Our water is super hard with loads of scale and I have been cleaning (descaling) machine with Delonghi EcoDecalc, but friend recommends this one (much cheaper):
Is this safe to use? It says it contains citric, lactic and malic acid. It also says to use 50 ml on 500 ml of water while Delonghi EcoDecalc should be 100 ml on 1700 ml (I think) of water. Its almost 2x difference and I was thinking if acids are simmilar I should use 100 ml of acid for full tank anyway.
We abuse our machine by making loads of coffe and tea. With scale settings on max we get descaling alarm every 3-4 weeks. It used to be on medium settings, but machine almost clogged completely once...so thats why max settings. Delonghi liquid is not cheap, but dont want to take any risk for 30€ a year. On the other hand, I dont want to pay 10€ for a 2-3€ product just because it says Delonghi on the bottle.
What do you use for your machine? How often do you descale?
Just use vinegar.
Anytime you're talking about scaling due to hard water, just use vinegar.
Even with a dishwasher, throw an upright bowl in there with some vinegar.
There might be some special products that work a teeny bit better, but they don't cost a dollar for a gallon.
Dishwashers usually have a water softener integrated with a salt depot that you need to fill up on a regular basis. The water hardness needs to be configured accordingly.
I don't think that's an American thing.
In some areas of America we have giant water softeners, and it's still not enough. But I've never heard of dishwashers having another built in.
Lots of people moving to reverse osmosis tho
You are correct, every dishwasher I saw in Europe has had a salt compartmebt for softening. None of the US ones I've come across have one. Those do on the other hand have a hot water inlet next to the cold inlet, which is kinda neat I guess.
The only dishwasher models I know of you can get in the US that have salt/softener dispensers are Miele models, and a couple of Bosch models. Both of which are of course European brands, and for Bosch it's specifically only a couple of their "made in Germany" models and not the majority of their product line.